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Classic and Contemporary Poetry


THE DEATH DANCE by WILLIAM SHARP

First Line: O ARONE A-REE, EILY ARONE, ARONE!
Last Line: O, O, ARONE, A-REE, EILY ARONE!
Subject(s): DEATH; HAPPINESS; LOVE AFFAIRS; SAILING & SAILORS; DEAD, THE; JOY; DELIGHT;

O arone a-ree, eily arone, arone!
'Tis a good thing to be sailing across the seas!
How the women smile and the children are laughing glad
When the galleys go out into the blue sea—arone!
O eily arone, arone!

But the children may laugh less when the wolves come,
And the women may smile less in the winter-cold—
For the Summer-sailors will not come again, arone!
O arone a-ree, eily arone, arone!

I am thinking they will not sail back again, O no!
The yellow-haired men that came sailing across the sea:
For 'tis wild apples they would be, and swing on green branches,
And sway in the wind for the corbies to preen their eyne,
O eily arone, eily a-ree!

And it is pleasure for Scathach the Queen to see this:
To see the good fruit that grows on the Tree of the Stones:
Long black fruit it is, wind-swayed by its yellow roots,
And like men they are with their feet dancing in the void air!
O, O, arone, a-ree, eily arone!

O arone, a-ree, eily arone, arone,
O, O, arone, a-ree, eily arone!



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